Tuesday April 7th 2015. By train from home back to Soltau (Germany)

Engelbewaarder Lil uit Frankrijk ophalen op vliegveld EindhovenPicking up sister in law Lilian at Eindhoven airport who came from France for the family reunion in Nijmegen

Schoonmoeder Sylvia met haar drie dochters, zijnde de helft v haar kinderschare Mother in law with 3 daughters

A week or two ago in Haaksbergen I heard from girlfriend Rilo an ancient travelogue of a Frisian pilgrim in the year 1200. The young man was of noble birth and made a pilgrimage to Rome. His meticulously kept diary was published. It contains among others the daily distances covered: between 20 and 40 km., sometimes even more. I suspect that this pilgrim also, if possible, made use of carriages, farm wagons etc. wasting no energy yet to make several large distances, even on foot. So he took advantage of the possibilities of his time. This justifies a little my Easter Ausflug  home by train. These are the possibilities now and iI do not have to be ” more Catholic than the Pope”.  So I am able to participate in the family reunion in honor of my father in law’s 92th birthday. Photo.

Dankwoord van 92-jarige stiefschoonvaderFather in law thanking the crowd at the occasion of his 92nd birthday

And, of course, I hope to limit the alienation from my own grandchildren a little. At the Dutch airport Eindhoven Sonja and I picked up sister in law Lilian, who came from France where she lives, and who helped me in France in many sticky situations when looking for shelter , also to be partakers of the Nijmegen family reunion. Of course, the weather was super cozy. At the familily reunion I came face to face again with one of my dearest sisters in law and also with my golden French gardian angel Lilian and with many others.

This morning I had to get up damn early for a non-walking day, meeting Lee in the Rott, at 7.45 a.m. In Vijlen they say: in the Rott doa sjtoekke ze de botter mit the vot. (In Rott they bat the butter with their ass ). Along with Lee by car to the nearby German train station in Stolberg-Aachen, where Noel already had arrived. All day on the train to Soltau. I thought only I had a difficulty factor, viz. the dog. But Lee and Noel’s bikes were not much better. Sometimes in the train each bike took the place of three chairs, very antisocial, lifting the loaded bikes from one platform to another, upstairs, downstairs is not a peace of cake. A stretch by bus:  is a bike allowed? Yes, but if a pram is loaded, the bike should move. Does that mean we have to get off the bus when a baby carriage is being boarded?
Let’s have a cup of coffee. Dogs prohibited! Next Geschäft. Is the dog allowed in? Only if he does not bite. Usually he does not bite! So at last we got our coffee. At Soltau Lee and Noel biked 2.5 km to the campsite Ebsmoor. Tosca and I were walking of course. A couple weeks ago, home, I had bought a new tent, a 1 kg. one-persons tent to replace the 4 kg tent that the pony had carried. This was the first time I slept in this tent. Looking for a flat surface, without stones, the entrance out of the wind. Head end at the top side. Where do I leave Tosca? For her I found a place on a carpet in the drying room for laundry, separated from the toilet block. It could be much worse. Lee pops up a bottle of wine. So it seems to even get funny. From now on I can share my sorrows for one week, and “inch Allah”, if God Pleases, also share joy. The boys are so sweet to me ( though all real men don’t want to be sweet to each other), because I got Noel’s leftover fries. After a while we decided to infrastructure where to go tomorrow. We decided to go to Undeloh without booking anything. So schluss infrastructuring. After a few beers infrastructuring becomes rather difficult anyway. Noël and Lee together have done several cycle tours of several hundred kilometers, so they are experienced  and decided to go to roost very early. Since I only have wifi at the campsite restaurant a few hundred meters from our tents, I’m still there to quickly make my notes and right after I’ll go too, at 10 p.m. 

Ik heb niet de indruk dat Tosca slecht uitziet I don’t have the impression Tosca looks bad

 

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